Chapter Text
“Keep it on,” Adar carefully wrapped a small, innocently looking necklace around Elrond’s neck. “You’ll be able to find a way.”
Elf nodded, instinctively brushing silver jewelry with fingers.
“I will,” he promised.
“Outside your eyes might be tired and uncomfortable at first, be careful,” he added with a sigh. He was very unhappy that Elrond needed to leave him, but he understood that his beloved had relatives and friends who were worried and scared that he died somewhere on the road home or worse.
Elrond embraced his hands. “Thank you,” he kissed Adar softly, trying to give him all of the love and other feelings.
***
He was clothed in a long gown in a nice, gray color and a heavy cloak with fur lining.
As Adar warned, his eyes became so sensitive that he needed to put on a deep hood of the cloak. Brightness of the day not only made his eyes teary, but also brought him pain.
However it happened, he left the Old Forest (Old Domain, as Adar called it) following a small, almost forgotten path and the next thing that he knew was a normal, birch wood.
He knows this place. It was a small piece of something like a natural birch garden which grew on the edge of an elder forest near the road which was usually followed by the elves traveling from Lindon to Eregion and back.
He had food and water, and his belongings in a bag, which also was a present from Adar. He was grateful, because the road to Lindon wasn’t short for someone who was wandering fully on foot, without even a donkey to ease the hardest passes. Like him, who lost his horse and was far away from all the places where he could ask to get help from fishermen or other boat’ owners.
He knew he would need to walk for a long time, but he had no idea that it would tire him so much… he did a few little stops to sit on the stones on the sides of the road. He ate a bit of his food and drank a few sips of the water. He tried to be careful because he doesn't have the elven bread and just a regular one with some fruits. It was enough for two or three days of march if Elrond was cautious and reasonable.
He was doing his best, but he felt as if his hunger was growing instead of decreasing. It worried him. He never before eats so much and so often while wandering through wildlands.
“Still weak,” he murmured to himself. “Maybe I should stay with Adar for a few days more?”
Worries and fear vanished when he was found by an elven guards which were riding from the control on the borders to Lindon.
“Hey! Hey you!” A guard in shiny armor called him. “Who are you? Why are you hiding under the hood in the middle of the day?”
Well, because the sun was too bright and he felt as if he needed the calm feeling which the Adar scent was giving him… he kept his thoughts to himself and carefully took off the hood.
“Herald!” Guards recognized him. “Lord Elrond! Oh, Elbereth!”
All the three elves surrounded him with their faces grimaced in shock and eyes wide open. His red, sensitive eyes, teary from the brightness of sunrises clearly scared them.
“You were hurt, Lord Elrond?”
“It looks bad!”
“You should see the healer!”
“WE should take King’s Herald to the healer!”
Elrond didn’t think much about what Gil-Galad will do when they meet again. He was focused on many other things.
Like how tired he was.
He fell asleep when one of the soldiers put him on the horse in front of himself. He was just a little shape hugged by the warmness of the cloak's fur. And he liked it. It was comfortable in a way even if horseback was not the best place to ignore the world.
Consciousness returned to him when three elves decided to stop for a night and prepare a small camp in the safe shadows of thick bushes and big stones. One of the men carefully helped him sit by the little fire and put food in his hands.
All the three of them looked worried. He would gladly tell them that it was unnecessary, but he was not sure why he was so sleepy and so hungry. He guessed the reason was his healing process and the days he spent hidden in the Old Domain. Probably there was something like high sickness. He got it a few times in the past, mostly when he needed to travel in the mountains. After a few days of rest and some herbal teas he would be just as new.
Soldiers took him to the Lindon, he weakly noticed the feeling of old trees reaching for him. Soft brushing on the edge of his senses made him sleepy again as if he was tucked to sleep by someone who cared.
Soldiers led him to the healers’ halls. He would like more to hide in his own room, but he obeyed to not stress his helpers more.
“Elrond Peredhel,” Lord Laureliel, the healer of highest rank in Lindon, welcomed him. “If you returned home with new sickness coming from checking a taste of wild herbs-” he started.
“No!” Elrond blushed, protesting. “But- I might need… Can we go to your office, Lord Laureliel?” he asked when suddenly, the long ignored topic of Gil-Galad returned to his thoughts with the full impact.
Healer sighed, then he brushed his golden locks with hand, clearly thinking about leaving Elrond alone and ignoring his presence.
Poor Lord Laureliel was a witness of the most embarrassing states of Peredhel’s health in the past few years. He should be considered as a specialist in the mysterious art of healing half elves.
“Okay,” he said after a moment of silence. “We will talk in my office.”
Lord Laureliel’s office was a nice, silent room with one big bookcase, a medical bed and a desk. Elrond decided to sit on a medical bed. He thought about putting the cloak away, but he decided to keep it. Warmness of fur was making everything slightly better. And he could always put a hood on if the talk was bad.
“You will not tell our King what I’ll tell you.”
“Oh, for Varda’s sake! What did you do this time, Elrond?!” Lindon’s highest healer asked, looking as if he needed a calming tea right now before he will listen even one word more.
Elrond, like a good guest, ignored the slightly nervous state of his host.
“First tell you will not talk with Gil-Galad.”
“Should I swear-”
“NO!” Peredhel shivered, looking at Lord Laureliel with big eyes. “Never. And no promises. Just be a healer and never talk with Gil-Galad about what I’ll say now.”
Elder elf reached to a leather pouch he had by his belt and under Elrond's stare, he prepared a strong calming tea with the herbs he took from there. He sat on his desk with the whole pot in his hands.
“Okay, Elrond. Go on.”
“My horse panicked and threw me off of its back in the forest. I had big bruises on the side and back and big bleeding cut on my head. I was found by an avari elf,” he lied, because he would never risk the safety of Adar and his family. “He cared about me for a few days or weeks.”
“You don’t know?” Asked Lord Laureliel suspiciously.
“It was one of the Earth Tribe, his house was under the ground.”
“It explains your eyes. We will put a light bandage on them until you’ll adapt to the sun again.”
Elrond nodded.
“Okay, what else do you want to tell me? You would not want the private talk if the privacy of a lonely avari would be your only reason.”
“He healed me,” he promised. “I would like you to check my health anyway, he was not a healer and I probably had a concussion. Someone with proper knowledge should do a check up.”
“And?”
“And we had, well, a little affair. I would not want you to be worried or worse, call Gil-Galad,” Elrond looked at Lord Laureliel apologetically.
Healer lifted the pot, looking in Elrond’s eyes.
“We were a bit-”
He drank a very big sip of the tea.
“-intense.”
He took one more big sip.
“Okay, Elrond. Take off your clothes and better if it’s the last time I will see evidence of your sexual life.”
Peredhel took off the cloak. Lord Laureliel lifted an eyebrow up at the sight of a red, bite mark on his neck.
“We will need to put ointment and bandage on it. If not, our king will for sure know immediately you had a passionate affair.”
Elrond blushed and stood up to take off his gown.
Lord Laureliel whistled, looking at a few hand shaped bruises on his hips and three or four bite marks.
“Better not wear short sleeved clothes for a week or two. Okay, sit down. I’ll examine your ribs and spine. Tell me that I don’t need to check your ass.”
“What?! Of course not!” Elrond blushed red, shocked by the suggestion.
Healer took one more big sip and put the pot away. He stood up, lifting up his long, green sleeves so they would not interrupt the examination.
Continuation for King of the Moth Kin